Delivery-tray and support.



1. WHITE.

DELIVERY TRAY AND SUPPORT.

APPLICATION FILED ocr.19.1912.

Patented Jan. 9, 1917.

"W1. or a to ir A'hitthl a l U535 JDSEEPH 'W'HITE, 0F PISCATAVJAY TOWNSHIP, NEW/V JERSEY. ASSIGNOR T0 HALL ZPZRINTKNG PRESS COMPANY, OF DUNELLEN, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATIGN 335 NEW Application filed October 19, 1912.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l. .l'osnrir Win'rn. a citizen of the United States. residing at Piscataway township, State of New Jersey. (post-office address Boundbroolr. New .lersey). have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Delivery-Trays and Supports; and I do declare the following to be a full, true, and exact description of said invention. such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make use of the same.

in many forms of mechanisms. and particularly printing machines. it is often desirable to deliver sheets in small unit piles for various reasons. such as to prevent the offsetting of wet inlr and to hasten the drying thereot' and the like. This is usually accomplished by placing mlatively small quantities of the sheets, as they come from the machine. on separate trays or holders. Sometimes these holders or trays are placed directly on the delivery board of the machine and removed when the machine is stopped or between the delivery of successive sheets. Devices have also been made by which a plurality of trays are presented successively to the delivery mechanism so that a small quantity of sheets may be delivered to each tray, which is then automatically removed.

My present invention provides a simple and ellicient means by which a tray may be supported so that the sheets are delivered directly thereto until a quantity has accumulated, when the tray may be pushed out of place by the operator by the insertion of an empty tray between the successive operations of the delivery apparatus, the arrangement being such that the displacenient of the full tray by the empty one may occur so quickly that, even in machines in which the sheets are being delivered in rapid succession, it may take place between the delivery ot the successive sheets. To this end. I have provided a novel supporting means on which the trays may be rapidly moved into place and a stop to limit the motion of the tray along the support so as to locate it correctly. I have also provided a mech anism by which this stop is removed from contact with the lilled tray. by the act of inserting an empty one. a l l have also con structml the supg'iort for the tra s so that he insertion an empty ."s res to push Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented 9, Mi li a.

Serial no. 726,592.

a loaded tray oil the support and out of the way of the empty tray. From this lower position. the full tray is removed while the empty tray is being filled. The means which l have provided to accomplish these ends are extremely simple and yet eflicient. it being understood that simplicity is do sired because of the large number of trays which usually compose a set for use in such a machine. If the trays were complicated the necessary expense involved would be greatly increased. ll ith these and other objects in view my invention consists of certain novel features of constriu'tion and arrangeu'ient of parts as will be more fully described and pointed out in the appended claims.

in the drawing. Figure 1 represents a perspective view of my novel supports with a delivery tray thereon. In the figure. a portion of another tray which is being moved into position is shown. No particular machine to which the supports may be attached is shown. it being understood that the device may be attached to any kind of a machine in which suitable supports for the several portions of my novel device would be. provided. Fig. 2 represents a section of one of the plunger-s shown in Fig. 1.

The corresp "aiding parts are referred to both in the drawing and the following description by similar reference characters.

In the drawing. 10 represents the body ot atray or support for sheets which. in the particular form chosen for purpose of illustration. is composed of a thin flat board. This member 10 may be made up of a series of slats or in. any other manner. as may be desired.

11 and 12 are end members for the tray extending across the ends thereof and above the top of the member 10. as shown. it will be understood that the tray may also be provided with corresponding side members if desired.

13 and 1% are a pair of parallel bars fa.- tened in any suitable manner to the machine from which the sheets are to be delivered the trays.

15 and 16 are pieces of any terial. preferal any c;' n "ue'. A

These members 15 and 16 are supporting members for the tray, extending beyond the edges thereof, and are preferably located at one end of the tray. The supports 13 and 14: are spaced apart so as to permit a tray to pass between them and be supported thereon by the members 15 and 16 engag-' ing with the tops of the supports 13 and 14. The members 15 and 16 are suitably notched, as shown, to guide the tray as it moves along the supports 13 and 14.

17 and 18 are short auxiliary supports arranged to engage the bottom of the member 10, in the form illustrated, at the end opposite the members 15 and 16. As will be seen by an inspection of the drawing, the tray when in place is supported at one end by the members 15-16, resting on the supports 18-14 and by the auxiliary supports 1718 at the other end.

In order to properly locate the tray under the delivery mechanism, I provide a stop device. I prefer the form of stop device which I have illustrated, although of course such a device is capable of wide variation. In the form illustrated, 19 and 20 are a pair of stops each attached to the side of pivoted members 21-22 these pivoted members being pivotally supported at 21 -22, on any suitable portion of the machine delivering sheets to the trays. These pivoted members are arranged so that the. stops 19-20 rest either on top of the supports 13-14 or on top of the member 10 of the tray and are arranged to engage with the inner face of the member 12 of the tray. It will be clear by inspection of the drawing that so long as these stops are in the position shown the tray cannot be moved to the left. The pivoted members 21-22 are so arranged that one portion of them extends parallel to the supports 13 H witha curved portion, which is practically a cam surface, extendmg upwardly therefrom. in order to move the tray into position, it is necessary to move the stops 19-20 out of the path of the member 11 and this is accomplished by the contact of the members 15-16 with the curved portions oi the pivoted members 21-22 as the tray is moved into place and when the members 15-16 are to the right of the pivoted members 21-22, as will be readily understood by an inspection of the drawing. As will also be readily understood, when the members 15-16 pass from under the ends of the pivoted members 21-22, the latter drop, bringingthe stops 19-20 into the path of the member 12 and the tray is brought to rest when the member 12 contacts with the stops 19-20.

When the tray which is in position has been filled with sheets and the operator desires to insert an empty tray and to remove the full tray, he places the supports 15-16 6% of the empty tray on the ends of the bars 13-14 to the right'of the stops 19-20 and moves such empty tray toward the left. The members 15-16 first move the stops 19-20 past the member 12 of the full tray and then the member 11 of the empty tray will contact with the member 12 of the full tray so that the full tray is pushed ahead of the empty tray. 7 The empty tray continues its inward movement until the stops 19-20, which have now dropped into operative position, contact with the member 12 of the empty tray.

In many forms of machines, it will be possible to have the supports 13-14 and the auxiliary supports 17-18 long enough so that the full tray would be supported as it is being pushed ahead of the empty tray until the empty tray is in position and then the full tray would be lifted from its supports. In many forms of machines, and particularly certain types of printing machines, this is not ossible and to enable the'removal of the ful tray, I construct the tray supports in such a way that after the full tray is pushed ahead a short distance by the empty tray, the full tray will drop below the plane of the empty tray, so that the operator may withdraw it after the empty tray is in place and from the same point at which the empty tray was inserted. To this end, I cut oil the supports 13-14 so that they extend only a short distance beyond the position of the supporting members 15-16 when the tray is in operative position and I likewise shorten the auxiliary members 17-18. As will be seen by an inspection of the drawing, if the tray is moved a short distance tothe left, the supporting members 15-16uwill pass by the ends of the supports 13-14 and the bottom of the tray will pass by the ends of the auxiliary supports 17-18. The tray will therefore drop bodily to a lower level. I provide a support to catch this tray as it falls, which support, in the preferred form, consists of parallel members 23-24 attached in any suitable manner to the machine delivering the-sheets to the tray, and to cushion the tray against the shock of falling, I provide a cushioning de vice which, in the form illustrated, consists of a number of sprin seated plungers 25 held in a pocketed member 26 attached to the members 23-24. In addition to the spring 27 supporting the plunger 25, I may arrange an air cushioning device comprising a pocket 28 in the plunger 25 into which a rod or plunger 29 is adapted to engage. It will be understood that when the full tray is pushed off the upper supports by the insertion of an empty tray, it will move to the lower plane represented by the tops of the members 23-24, the plungers 25 being pushed down until level with such supports. The operator then at his leisure removes the full tray by sliding it toward him or to the :md ein m'rengmz 'oppozts to slpooriz sand tray "(3 110mg said supu'b the n10- construcee i 1 imp 01 my mventlon,

may be many modand preferred form be understood the ifiea'tions in the illustrated all of su pol-t my: eonstruefied emi arranged to whlch all w'lthln the scope oi my level 11mm the motion of se a'yson stud supmon. Whlle i have shown a slmple bar 'oor and autolnailc means to move sald step out of operative position as a new tray is moved mto postman on said support.

6. A oiehvery tray support constructed and arranged to permit trays to be moved as a support and :1 supporting member attached to the tray anei having noiehes to guide the tray on S1101 bar, it ebvious that I am by no means limited to this struciure. This support may be ea-ranged in horizontal Lhereon, a movable stop consuch a way as 5o act {sweetly on he tray strueted and arranged to 11mm the motlon itself Instead of the member attached of sand tray/e on 521161 support and a member on each may, constructed, and arranged the 'eto.

e said stop out of opemelve posltlon While I have shown my tray stop mechanism as eomposeoi o ie plurality stops, we is moved into position on said it is obvlous that a 51; a $200 H answer supp of t, be movedsupport and a stop support constructed and arranged to beengaged by said projection as the tray is moved along said support, to remove said stop from the path of the tray and then to permit it to return to said path to locate said tray on said support.

11. A delivery tray support constructed and arranged to permit trays to be moved horizontally thereon, a delivery tray comprising a bottom section and a member at each end projecting above the bottom section, a removable stop constructed and arranged to engage one of said end members to locate said tray on said support and means on said tray to remove said stop from the path of the tray to permit one of said end members to pass and to permit said stop to return to operative position to engage the other end member as said tray is moved along said support.

12. A pair of delivery tray supports, spaced apart, and constructed and arranged to permit trays to be moved horizontally thereon, a tray adapted to be supported movably on said supports, said tray and said supports being constructed and arranged to permit both ends of said tray to drop simultaneously when said tray is moved beyond a predetermined point on said supports, and a removable stop to limit the motion of said tray when moving along said supports, be-

fore it reaches said predetermined point.

13. A pair of delivery tray supports, spaced apart, and constructed and arranged to permit trays to be moved horizontally thereon, a tray adapted to be supported movably on said supports, said tray and said supports being constructed and arranged to permit both ends of said tray to drop simultaneously when said tray is moved beyond a predetermined point on said supports, and cushioning devices to receive said tray as it drops.

14:. .A pair of delivery tray upper supports, spaced apart, a delivery tray lower support located below said upper support, each of said upper and lower supports being constructed and arranged to permit trays to be moved horizontally thereon, a tray adapted to be supported movablyon said supports, said upper supports and said tray being constructed and arranged to permit both ends of said tray to drop to said lower support simultaneously when said tray is moved beyond a predetermined point on said upper support.

JOSEPH WHITE. Witnesses:

FRANK M. MAGUE, CHARLES F. ERYAN. 

